It Leads to Being Reckless
by SparksCrimson
Summary: Hermione is insanely jealous of Ron and Lavender's relationship. She wants an outlet to get her frustrations out and to seek revenge on Ron. Her newfound recklessness makes her seek an unlikely distraction, Draco Malfoy.
1. Chapter 1

Everything belongs to JK Rowling.

* * *

The sight of Ron holding Lavender's hand made Hermione feel emotions she never really felt. She saw the happy couple strolling down the corridor, holding on each other, gazing into each other for as long as they could before they bumped into someone. She wanted to strangle Ron, she wanted to hang Lavender to forever quell her moronic laugh, and most of all she wanted to hit her own head against the marble wall so she could erase the image of them together in her mind.

Insane jealously, bitter hatred, and utter sadness enveloped Hermione as she walked into Potions, and when she saw that Lavender had taken her usual spot besides Harry and Ron, she burrowed her eyebrows in frustration. Harry was already sitting and turned to her, he got up when he saw her.

"Hermione, we'll find another pair of seats, come on," he said. Hermione nodded toward Harry when Professor Snape waltzed in.

"No time, Potter. Granger, sit next to Malfoy."

Harry looked liked he wanted to protest, but he obeyed and sat down. Hermione turned toward the lone Slytherin sitting by himself. She expected the usual sneer from him, but he looked vacant instead. She sat down next to him. She noticed that he didn't even turn toward her.

_Better than sitting next to Lavender. _

It was impossible to pay attention during Snape's lecture. Hermione allowed herself to drift off in a reverie of hateful thoughts, all involving Lavender ending up in tears.

_A curse that made all her hair fall out! Lets see how long Ron would want her after that, that dumb baboon. Or that terribly majestic wart hex! Haha, all over her body, even on her bum so she couldn't sit comfortably. _

A smirk crept upon her lips as she unconsciously drew jagged marks with her quill on her parchment, she didn't notice she was doing this until Malfoy said, "Granger, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Hermione looked down at her parchment covered in angry scribbled lines. Her eyes sharply turned to look at Malfoy, who cupped his chin underneath his upright hand, looking uninterested.

"I have a right to not pay attention today," she said.

She saw Lavender drag her hand across Ron's back. Hermione unconsciously began to shake her leg, she felt her jealously travel though her body in tendrils, it started in her aching heart and made its way to her hand, which she clenched into a fist.

"Stop shaking your leg, it's annoying me," Malfoy said.

Hermione kept shaking her leg, not hearing Malfoy. She felt the pressure of a hand still her leg and looked down and saw Malfoy's pale hand upon her thigh. His palm touched the fabric along the edge of her skirt, and his fingers were atop of her black stockings. It was a weird sensation to her, _Malfoy's hand is on my thigh, and I'm not disgusted. _

She stopped and he retracted his touch. Hermione then cracked her knuckles and felt Malfoy's annoyed gaze in her peripheral.

"You're so sensitive," she said.

"How about you stop being so affected by Weaselbee and his flower named girlfriend, Rose or Poppy, or whatever."

"Lavender," Hermione informed and turned her gaze away from the couple, _Is it that obvious? _

"Whatever, it's pathetic," Draco said. Hermione felt her cheeks redden. _It is pathetic, I'm so pathetic, and to hear it from Malfoy!_

* * *

Hermione was crying in the third floor girl's bathroom, the one where she went to cry in her first year when a mountain troll nearly killed her. She sat on top of the toilet lid and wiped her tear stained cheek. _This is stupid, why I'm I crying over a boy? I should study, that would distract me. _

She grabbed some toilet paper and blew her noise. She heard the creak of the bathroom door being opened and heard two girls mid conversation come in.

"…Draco looks so distant lately, he isn't acting like a little prick anymore," said a girl whose voice Hermione couldn't recognize.

"I quite like this broody Draco Malfoy, is he dating anyone?" the other girl said.

_They must be Slytherin girls. _

"From what I heard no!"

Hermione pushed the lavatory door open when she was sure her face looked like it hadn't been crying. The Slytherin girls blankly looked at her and continued their gossip. Hermione washed her hands and listened.

_Merlin, now these girls are pathetic, talking over a boy they could never possible get, me on the other hand, me and Ron are mates, we could have been more…_

She left the bathroom with the gossipy, Slytherin girls behind her. Hermione was lost in her thoughts when she heard one of them gasp, she looked up and saw Draco Malfoy sauntering down the corridor.

_Oh, to be exciting by the sight of someone and not to feel completely empty inside, like me. _

She glanced up at Malfoy as they passed.

"No twitching today, that's an improvement, Granger," he said to her. Hermione acknowledged him with a slightly raised eyebrow. She heard the girls whisper behind her, "Why did he talk to _her_?"

Hermione couldn't help herself from being pleased with the Slytherin girls' jealously, even though she didn't like Malfoy, not even in the slightest bit.

* * *

A/N thanks for reading, please review if you are inclined to! I really appreciate them :) more up soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Everything belongs to the magnificent JK Rowling.

* * *

Unlike other girls, Hermione didn't want to talk about her feelings to make her feel better. _It's better to hide them, so I don't appear weak. _She walked down the corridor alone during her free period, it was a rather warm day, and Hermione had an urge to swim. She wanted to free her body from all the thoughts about Ron and Lavender that plagued her, to be weightless for a moment, to momentarily forget the heaviness of utter disappointment.

_I'm going to start acting on my urges, _Hermione thought as she made her descent towards the Black Lake.

Hermione Granger stripped down to her bra and underwear, she folded her clothes neatly and left them by the roots of a tree along with her wand because she didn't have the wand leg holster for swimming that Harry had.

_There's no one around anyway. _

She dove into the cool water. She exhaled a pleasant sigh when she resurfaced and floated on her back. She lingered there a moment, staring at the clouds in the sky, her mind at peace. Hermione began to swim laps, and with each stroke she reawakened her senses that had recently been dulled.

_This is so pleasant. Don't ruin it by thinking about Ron. _

She floated in the water and looked toward the shore. Her heart palpitated when she saw a person walking toward the tree where she had left her wand and clothes. She squinted at the figure in the distance and saw a platinum blond head.

_Malfoy. _

Hermione began to swim toward the shore with haste, her swift strokes quickly got her to the shoreline the same time Malfoy did.

"Out for a swim?" he said. Hermione quickly got out of the water, her wet undergarments sticking to her body. She quickly grabbed her wand from the nook in the roots and grabbed her clothes in a bundle against her chest, trying to hide from Malfoy's prying eyes.

"Go away!" she said. She then cast a hot air charm to dry herself off.

"Oh, like you're so special to look at. This is my spot anyways," he said sitting down. Hermione growled, and hid behind the trunk of the tree to put her clothing on. She peeked out to see if Malfoy was watching, he was.

"Ugh," she said, glaring.

"Just hurry up and leave," he said.

"I was here first! But I'll indulge you because you ruined my moment of peace," she said. Hermione draped her Gryffindor tie around her neck without tying it, she grabbed her shoes, and began to walk away.

"A moment of peace from the sight of the ever present snogging of Weaselbee and his dumb as gillyweed girlfriend?"

Hermione stopped and debated is she should retort. She turned around, "I don't even care about _that_," she said. She saw Malfoy's eyes were not looking at her, she followed his gaze down to her chest, where she forgot to button the first two buttons. It took her a few tries to button them with her wand in her right hand. Draco Malfoy was unabashed about being caught looking, he stretched his long legs and lay back with his hands on the back of his head.

"Are you sad that no one wants to snog you, Granger?" he said mockingly, "You poor, bushy-haired…"

"-Shut it, Malfoy, it's not like there are girls lining up to be with you," she said.

_Well, maybe stupid Slytherin girls. _

Draco Malfoy raised his head off the ground, "Wrong, I could get a girl from any house if I wanted to."

Hermione laughed.

"Then why don't you?" she questioned.

"Because I don't want to at this time, Granger," Draco said. Hermione looked upon Malfoy who lay there so full of himself, stretched out, talking nonchalantly while his hair glistened in the sunlight.

"Your apathy is amusing, but unbelievable. No one wants to associate with you," Hermione said.

Draco Malfoy was silent for a moment, "You know what? The Weasel came to his senses, he got himself a pure-blood instead of a mudblood like you."

Hermione felt a lump in her throat, before she could even consider her options she yelled, "_Aqua Erecto_!" A jet of water erupted from the tip of her wand onto Draco Malfoy's crotch, he began to yell but Hermione stomped off. She would have cursed him if he had tried to retaliate, but he didn't. She angrily made her way back to the castle.

* * *

"Guess who did it?" Luna Lovegood's dreamy voice said. Hermione's ethereal friend sat next to her at the Gryffindor table.

"Did what?" Harry sat down and began to fill his plate.

"Copulate," Luna said.

Harry raised his eyebrow.

"It means sex, Harry," Hermione said.

"I know what it means, Hermione."

"Please don't say Ginny," Hermione whispered to Luna. She didn't want Harry to be upset, he was like her, he couldn't be with the person he liked.

"No, Hermione," Luna whispered back, "Neville Longbottom," she said.

"Neville?" A piece of scrambled egg fell from Harry's fork.

"With who?" Hermione asked.

Luna Lovegood smiled dreamily, "With me."

"What?" Hermione and Harry said in unison.

"Just wanted to let you know," Luna said before she got up and left.

"Merlin! Neville lost it before me," Harry whispered to Hermione.

"Harry, you have the fate of the wizardry world on your shoulders, don't fret, it'll happen soon enough," Hermione said as her eyes drifted across the room. She saw Malfoy glaring at her. Harry turned to see what she was looking at and scowled, "That git," he said.

"I used the _Aqua Erecto_ charm on him yesterday," she said.

"Congratulations," Harry said.

"Harry! He's probably going to get me back."

"You're too quick, Hermione, don't worry about it."

"I guess you're right, especially when I have other things to worry about," Hermione said as Ron and Lavender appeared at the Great Hall's entrance.

"Don't let it bother you," Harry told her.

"I can say the same thing to you," Hermione said as she glanced over at Ginny and Dean.

"Hi guys!" Lavender said as she plopped down on the bench.

"Bye guys!" Hermione replied grabbing her books. She got up and saw that Malfoy had gotten up with her. Hermione walked out of the Great Hall and quickly looked behind her and saw Malfoy following behind her.

_Draco Malfoy if you dare duel me now you'll end up in the Hospital Wing. Do not mess with a woman scorned._

* * *

A/N thanks for reading! More up soon :)


	3. Chapter 3

Everything belongs to the wonderful JK Rowling.

* * *

Hermione Granger turned and faced Malfoy, "If you attempt any revenge you'll be thoroughly sorry."

"You think I'm afraid of _you_? Pfft, you really are big-headed," Draco Malfoy said and walked toward her. Behind Malfoy, Hermione caught sight of Ron and Lavender exiting the threshold of the Great Hall.

"Everything alright, Hermione?" Ron called out to her.

"Of course, Ronald! You know I just love being in Malfoy's presence." Hermione glared at Malfoy, who turned to look at Ron and Lavender.

"You think Lavender has given it up to Weasley yet?" Malfoy's eyebrows shot up. Anger and jealously invaded Hermione as she stalked off, not wanting to hear more. Draco Malfoy followed her.

"Malfoy! Leave her alone," Ron said from behind them.

"I hear Lavender is easy, the kind of girl who begs for it," Malfoy said as he walked beside her.

"Shut up," Hermione said.

"I overheard some Slytherin girls talk about how she taught them contraceptive spells - "

"Shut it, Malfoy, or - "

"Do you see the way they look at each other? Merlin, its obvious they're partaking in carnal festivities!"

Hermione halted and stared upon the insolent boy in front of her. She was upset, yes, but it was the image of Ron and Lavender together sexually that infuriated her more than Draco Malfoy.

"Hermione!" Ron called out.

Draco's mouth twisted up, "Does the thought of them fucking keep you up at night?"

Hermione let her anger engulf her. She glanced at the couple and then to Malfoy. Her lip quivered and she had to clamp her teeth down to keep it still.

_If I cry, he wins. What can I do to make him leave me alone? _

Hermione's usual clear sense ebbed away. She grabbed Malfoy roughly by his robes and yanked him down toward her, and hit him on the mouth with a fierce kiss from her lips.

Lavander gasped.

"What the bloody hell!" Ron yelled.

Hermione pushed Draco away from her and saw that his twisted smile from before was now agape in shock.

"H-How dare you!" Draco said, "You – you -"

"-Mudblood," Hermione finished, "How about you tell your father about that?"

Draco Malfoy glared at her speechless, and for once he had a blush upon his pale cheeks. He stomped off the opposite direction, hitting Ron's shoulder as he passed.

"Hermione, what's wrong with you?" Ron said worryingly.

She shrugged nonchalantly and continued walking down the corridor.

* * *

For the first time, Hermione didn't sit at the Gryffindor table during dinner. She sat beside Luna Lovegoood at the Ravenclaw table, who had heard what she had done earlier.

"Hermione, did you kiss Draco Malfoy to spite Ron?" Luna questioned.

"Malfoy got to me, telling me things that I didn't want to hear, things I try not to think about. It infuriated me, I wanted to punish Malfoy for being a prat and Ron for doing those things . . . I kind of thought it would make him jealous, and if he was outraged, then maybe Ron would tell me he has feelings toward me, however subdued."

Luna listened intently.

"But I think he was just appalled because it was Malfoy, not because he was jealous or anything," she said solemnly.

"You want to know something I found interesting?" Luna said.

"Hm?"

"Ron recounted what he saw to Harry and me, and he described you yanking Malfoy towards you, then pushing him away."

Hermione laughed, "I was a bit rough, I suppose. I thought about punching him again, but I thought this would offend him more."

"Why didn't Draco Malfoy push _you_ away first. He let you kiss him." Luna Lovegood raised an eyebrow as she continued to eat.

Hermione opened her mouth to explain, but shut it, not knowing a sure reason.

"He was probably too shocked," she concluded.

Luna looked over to the Slytherin table and Hermione's eyes followed, Malfoy's eyes quickly darted from them to a lemon tart on his plate.

"I sense something going on with him," Luna Lovegood said.

"Yeah, retaliation," Hermione said leaning forward to get a slice of pecan pie.

* * *

The kiss seemed to work, a week had passed and there was not a word from Malfoy uttered to her.

* * *

Hermione Granger's mind was engulfed in Potions while she erratically wrote down Snape's directions and tips. Harry and Ron sat parallel to her.

"Malfoy, come up and aid me in passing out Aconite," Snape's voice drawled.

Harry whispered out to Hermione, "Got an extra quill? Mine just snapped."

Hermione huffed, and without looking, jutted her own quill toward him. The back of her hand felt fabric instead of flesh.

"Harry!" She wavered her hand against it and felt a form that felt oddly like a . . .

_Penis._

She turned her head and her perverse thought was validated.

Her hand was in front of Malfoy's pelvic region. She dropped it swiftly to let him pass and her eyes fell downcast to her parchment, stricken with embarrassment.

"Quite cheeky, Granger," Malfoy said as he continued his way to the front of the classroom.

"Hermione is definitely going mental," Ron said. Hermione turned toward the boys and threw her quill at Harry.

"I didn't do it on purpose!" she whispered fiercely.

"You also didn't kiss the git on purpose too?" Ron mumbled to Harry. Hermione took out a quill from her book bag. She dipped it into her ink jar and set the tip on her cream colored parchment.

"Did it feel . . . big?" the Ravenclaw girl who was sitting beside her asked.

Her quill snapped.

* * *

A/N Thanks for reading. Leave a review if you feel inclined, I quite savor them. Thanks :)


	4. Chapter 4

Everything belongs to JK Rowling

* * *

Even with the silencing charm cast around her four poster bed, Hermione Granger still couldn't sleep. It was the whispers of Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil that led her to cast it, and yet sleep eluded her. She crept out of her bed and slung her school robe around her.

"Ron said he _really_ fancies me today," Lavender whispered.

"Aww," Parvati replied.

"Ugh," Hermione grunted before she tugged the door open and descended the steps.

* * *

_Just walk a bit and then you'll feel tired and you'll go straight to sleep. _Hermione walked throughout the castle without fear of being caught. She ended up in the courtyard, sitting on a marble slab under an archway, looking out toward the Black Lake. The night's music of the soft wind, the hoots of owls, and the chirping of crickets calmed Hermione. A sleepy smile spread across her lips until her eyes met a figure standing by the shore of the lake. She squinted her eyes and saw that it was Draco Malfoy.

Hermione saw that he was fixated on the lake and didn't even flinch when she crept up to him and said, "What are you up to Malfoy?"

He stood like a statue, and Hermione thought he was trying a new tactic to annoy her, until she saw that he had an empty bottle loosely clutched in his hand. She took it and read a cursive scrawl: _Sleeping Draught. _She turned the bottle and in a smaller writing it said: _May cause drinker to sleepwalk. _

"I read that it's unwise to wake a sleepwalker up because it disorientates them. Might cause bewilderment. I wonder if I should test this," she stared at Malfoy staring at the lake. "But you're so much tolerable like this," she said and she took a step closer to him. "You know I never _really_ looked at you, luckily for you you're not as hideous as your personality." Hermione chuckled to herself. "And Harry and Ron think I'm not funny. In seriousness, if you weren't so insolent a lot more people would like you. You might get better friends besides those oafs Crabbe and Goyle. You can't value that friendship right? They're loyal, but so bloody stupid!"

Hermione stood next to the catatonic Malfoy and continued her one sided conversation.

"I'm no longer jealous of Ron and Lavander's relationship. I would say more ambivalent, I only get frustrated because she's utterly insipid, and Ron can't even carry a conversation with her. They just snog!

"I'll get somebody to like me, one day. Krum did, didn't he? And I was just myself, going to library and studying."

She looked at Malfoy, "Any comments? I bet you would say something like, 'You're a dirty mudblood, nobody will like you! I'm Draco Malfoy, blah blah blah, I have daddy issues and I mimic the prat to impress him,' is that accurate?

"Although I sense something distressing in you this year, you aren't making fun of me as often. And I bet you can't sleep and that's why you take this Sleeping Draught. Maybe you feel as alone as I do, and that keeps you up night." Hermione looked at him and believed for a moment that it was possible for the two to share something in common. She poked his hand, "It's tragic that this conversation is making me feel better."

Then an odd impulse took ahold of her. She wanted to embrace Malfoy, and because she knew that this was the only opportunity to do so, she decided she would. She stood in front of him and hesitantly pressed herself against his firm chest, rested her head against his shoulder, and wrapped her arms around him. She closed her eyes as she inhaled the alluring scent of his cologne.

"Never thought that would happen," she said as she retreated from him. "But then again I never thought I would feel your . . . " Hermione looked down at his trousers. "That was an accident, by the way." She felt herself blush and looked down. A pearly glimmer of liquid ebbed and flowed along the shoreline caught her attention. She bent down and touched it.

"_Sure_, an accident."

Hermione yelped and jerked her head to see a very awake Draco Malfoy.

"And I don't have daddy issues," he stated.

"You were awake! The whole time?" she said.

"Yes."

"And you allowed my soliloquy because . . .?"

"Why not? Maybe you would reveal what Potter is up to, maybe you would embarrass yourself." He shrugged his shoulders. "But I guess all you wanted was to have your way with me," he said as he opened his arms, "Care to embrace again? I'll allow it because nobody is around."

"No!" Hermione said.

"First the kiss in the hallway, the grope in Potions, and now clandestine hugs under the moonlight? If you keep this up Granger I might suspect that you like me. Now that I know you only find my personality hideous and not my face."

Hermione backed away from him.

"I thought you took the Sleeping Draught, why did you pour it in the lake? How did you stay so still? I can't believe I didn't notice," she said.

"I had to throw it out, I was getting reliant on it just to close my eyes peacefully," Malfoy said.

"You're going to tease me relentlessly, aren't you Malfoy?" Hermione asked. He stared at her a moment before he shook his head.

"No, this conversation was the most engaging I had in weeks, and all I did was listen to you. You're right about Crabbe and Goyle, they're atrociously daft. I'll be here tomorrow night if you want to converse with me," he said. He stuck his hands in his pockets and retreated toward the castle.

"Night, Granger," he said.

"Goodnight," Hermione replied. She watched Draco Malfoy walk up to the castle and for the first time in her life felt regret that he was leaving so soon.

* * *

A/N Thanks for reading! Please review if you feel inclined! :)


	5. Chapter 5

Everything belongs to JK Rowling

* * *

Hermione felt guilty that throughout the day she would anticipate her midnight chats with Draco Malfoy. Sometimes she would sneak furtive glances at him just to see what he was doing, and she contemplated why she felt a strange excitement when she saw that he was already looking at her. This happened when she stretched during Potions, while she was walking down the crowded corridor in the middle of Harry and Ron, and in the Great Hall.

* * *

Hermione liked the feeling of the cold wind against her face and the scatter of her hair that caught between her flushed lips, and that her school robe billowed behind her as she strode pleasantly down to the Black Lake. Draco Malfoy was there before her as usual.

"You know what's depressing? Peeves told me today that I should cheer up, the bloody poltergeist is more keen than I thought," Draco said.

"He actually said something serious to you? All he ever does to me is blow raspberries at me," Hermione replied.

"That's nothing, I've witnessed him dry hump a poor Hufflepuff girl," Draco's mouth twisted up into a smile at the memory.

"No!" Hermione gasped.

"And he flashed that Gryffindor kid who always has his camera."

"Colin?" Hermione questioned.

Draco nodded, "He asked Peeves politely if he could take a picture of him, and Peeves replied, 'Take a picture of this!' and he showed him his little poltergeist prick. It was one of the most horrendous things I've ever witnessed, such hairy bollocks. And the kicker is, the Creepy kid took the picture!" Draco exclaimed.

"Creevy! Not creepy," Hermione laughed. "Is it odd that it doesn't sound that surprising to me?"

Eventually their whimsy conversation led to a new topic. It was when they saw the lazy undulations of the giant squids tentacles as it swam across the calm surface of the lake.

"Poor thing must get lonely in there, being alone with no mate," Hermione said.

"Yeah, no one to spawn with."

"Male squids deposit their sperm inside the female's head, well its gills, can you believe that?" Hermione said.

"That's abnormally interesting," Draco said as he sat on the ground, "You haven't let any bloke deposit sperm on your head, right Granger?"

Hermione guffawed.

"I assume you're a virgin," he said.

"I assume you are too, Malfoy. I've only seen you out with one girl and that was Parkinson at the Yule Ball, and by the look on your face I inferred that you went with her out of necessity, not choice. So, you're in no position to make fun of me."

"Don't be high and mighty just because you snogged that famous Quidditch player, Krum!"

"I never snogged him. He kissed me on the cheek, and I returned a kiss on his cheek," Hermione explained with a plop onto the ground next to Malfoy.

"Was I the first bloke you kissed on the lips?" Draco asked.

Hermione's eyes widened because she didn't know how to answer. He was, but she didn't want to tell him that.

"It's not of your business," she said.

"So I was," Draco concluded.

She looked ahead at the lake until she felt a close presence; she turned her head and sharply jerked it away when she saw Malfoy's head close to hers, and saw his lips puckered for kiss.

"What are you doing?"

"I wanted to test this urban myth that my Mum used to scare me with as a child, she said Purebloods who kiss Muggle-borns are blinded until the next full moon."

"You're mad," Hermione said.

"Rightly so, I'm gambling at losing my sight until Friday just to find out if this myth is false."

"Nothing happened in the corridor, Malfoy."

"It's because you kissed me. Purebloods can't be punished if a Muggle-born does it. Only if the Pureblood initiates it, that's what Mum told me before she tucked me in at night."

"You're stupider that I thought if you believe that."

"Prove me wrong then, let me kiss you."

Hermione contemplated briefly before she quickly said, "Fine, just a peck though."

A corner of Draco Malfoy's mouth went up into a sly smile before he leaned in and kissed her. When they both pulled away, Draco was quiet in his musings.

"See, you didn't go blind."

"I can't believe Mum lied to me."

Hermione snorted, "It's a scare tactic to keep that antiquated, elitist belief alive."

"I guess Mum wanted to keep my eyes from wandering to attractive Muggle-borns," he said.

_Am I an attractive Muggle-born? _

"You're not gonna tell anyone that I asked you for a kiss?" he asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "_Please_, how about you don't tell anyone that I let you."

He moved close to her and whispered in her ear, "I think I can handle another secret."

* * *

A/N Thanks for reading. Leave a review . . .?


	6. Chapter 6

Everything belongs to the magnificent JK Rowling.

* * *

Hermione grazed her bottom lip and reminisced about the kiss. _It was just to prove a point. _But wasn't Malfoy's contrived story of Mudbloods kissing Purebloods and rendering them blind an excuse to kiss her? She would like to think so. If not, their experiment by the lake proved that it was a Pureblood urban legend, and it wouldn't happen again.

She frowned and picked up her quill to begin her essay, to give her mind reprieve from replaying that moment again, and stirring something foreign inside her. She heard her fellow Gryffindor's trampling out of the portrait hole, in festive dispositions.

"Hermione!"

She turned and saw Ginny Weasley bounding toward her, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling with mirth. She was drunk.

"It's Friday, Hermione! What are you doing? There's this party tonight, do you wanna come?"

"I think you already started partying," Hermione said, going back to her homework.

"Well, you can't arrive to a party wholly somber can you?" Ginny said.

"I don't think I'd enjoy it," Hermione said.

"Eh, it might be a little daft. It's not solely Gryffindor's going. _Slytherin's _are going too, I heard," she said, offended.

Hermione's eyes shot up from her parchment.

"Actually, I really need to go out more," she said impetuously.

* * *

The polarity of the use of Room of Requirement astounded Hermione Granger. Once it had been a room where student's strived to learn and progress in their spellwork. Now, her fellow classmates strived for inebriation, to become piss drunk.

"Let's act retarded!" a drunk Hufflepuff yelled.

Hermione looked at Ginny incredulously.

"I feel so out of place!" she yelled over the din of music and drunken cacophony.

"_Accio_!" With a fluid motion of her wand Ginny summoned two drinks.

"Thanks," Hermione said as she grabbed her levitating red plastic cup.

She saw Seamus Finnigan run manically, entirely naked, past her.

"Drink up and become apathetic of what others think! It's firewhiskey and pop, utterly delicious," Ginny said with a mischievous smile so alike her twin brothers as she took a sip.

Hermione and Ginny walked through the agglomeration of gyrating bodies dancing to the cover band of the Weird Sisters.

"Are Harry and Ron here?" Hermione yelled out to Ginny as she sipped her drink.

"Ron is here with Lavender, of course, and Harry asked Cho, I think . . . oh, who cares!"

Ginny began dancing to the music while Hermione stood idly by, lamenting about Malfoy while intermittingly sipping her drink.

Maybe his subtle flirting was just a pastime for him.

Somebody enchanted a disco ball that erupted fiery crimson sparks. Hermione stared as the fiery flakes undulated down into the crowd until she caught sight of the blond head of Draco Malfoy across the room. He leaned against the wall besides Blaise Zabini, sipping on a drink and people watching. Then to Hermione's dismay, pug faced Pansy Parkinson approached Malfoy and began to tug his arm, in a fruitless attempt to get him to dance with her.

Hermione snorted.

_He doesn't like her. He likes me. _

She smirked as she saw the offended look across Pansy's face as Draco shrugged her off. Without really being cognizant of what she was doing, she walked through the crowd toward him.

"Malfoy," she stated.

"Out to spoil everyone's fun, Granger?" he said.

Hermione huffed; _of course he's embarrassed of me. Nothing has changed. _

"Actually, yes," she grabbed his drink. "Headboys cannot drink alcoholic beverages."

She threw his cup in the nearby rubbish bin and cast him an admonitory look before she left.

"What a prat!" she said. She collided with a couple on the dance floor embracing and tugged them apart.

"Oh, nobody wants to see that!" she yelled.

Hermione pushed past the gaiety, her sour disposition worsening when she saw Ron and Lavender making out.

_Such folly! Why did I sneak out for the past week and talk to him? Did I really believe we'd start chatting it up all the time? _

She left the party in a sullen mood.

As the entrance to the Room of Requirement dissipated, the din of raucous party was silenced, and Hermione was left in her self-berating thoughts.

She dragged her fingertips across the stone wall, feeling the grainy texture against her fingertips. She felt a little different, maybe it was the couple sips of alcohol, or maybe it was the realization that she yearned to be wanted. Not by any boy, but by Draco Malfoy. It was an eerie desire, sort of masochistic of her, wanting someone that publically despised her. _But at least I know he isn't like that all the time. _

"Granger!"

She turned around and it was him, striding toward her.

"That was a bit incongruous of you, were you gonna ask me to dance?" he asked sarcastically.

"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione said.

"My fellow Slytherins would be dumbstruck at the sight of it. Goyle would get an aneurysm," he said.

"Well, my fellow Gryffindors would think you've cast the Imperious Curse on me."

She glanced at him and felt her heart palpitate in an amalgam of yearning lust and distress.

_Don't entertain the thought_.

"I'll bet altruistic Potter would come to your rescue," Draco said.

"I don't need rescuing," Hermione replied.

"Everybody likes to think that," he said.

They stood in silence for a moment. Draco leaned against the wall, plunging his hands into his pockets.

"You noticed I left the party," Hermione said, sensing that his answer would tacitly reveal his feelings toward her.

"Of course, with that bushy head of hair, who wouldn't?"

Hermione frowned and began walking away from him.

"Granger, wait! I actually find your bushy hair quite endearing," he said. Then he smiled.

Hermione's head reeled with all the synonyms for ravishing. She had never seen Malfoy smile genuinely, and Merlin, she felt the urge to kiss him on his pretty mouth.

He bit his bottom lip and sighed.

_Don't do that._

"You're gorgeous, Hermione."

Hermione was startled, and for once didn't know how to respond, she couldn't formulate the proper answer. She was utterly dumbfounded as her heart wreaked havoc as it thumped wildly in her chest. He stepped closer, Hermione looked up into his gaze.

"In a perfect world I would've grabbed your hand and asked for a dance," he said in a mellifluous voice, grabbing her hand into his own.

Hermione met his kiss halfway. It was a delicate kiss, the kind that demands for another.

His lips suspended above hers, millimeters apart, tantalizing and pink. Hermione recaptured them, relishing the feel of them against her own. She didn't realize how lonely she had been until now.

* * *

A/N Thanks for reading.


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